A day after Mayawati’s brand of politics forced the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition to talk about “poor” upper castes, Congress president Sonia Gandhi skipped any mention of them at the two-day conference on “Empowerment of SCs, STs and minorities through elementary education” organised by the SC, ST legislators’ forum. Instead, she spoke about policies to uplift, empower and educate Dalits and minorities, including linguistic minorities.

At the same function Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat said poverty was the root cause of all problems in the country. He said once that was eliminated, then problems like lack of access to education and dropout rates could be solved and lead to empowerment of all communities. He didn’t once mention empowerment of Dalits and minorities.

Gandhi said it was a fact that due to historical reasons, SCs, STs and minorities remained at a disadvantage, so special attention to their education was necessary. She added that the government was ready with the blueprint for implementation of the Sachar Committee recommendations on removing backwardness among Muslims.

“Appropriate action on the Sachar Committee recommendation is in hand. And some of these findings have already been addressed in the PM’s 15-point programme for minorities,” she said.

On the other hand, Shekhawat said his experience of 50 years in public life had showed him that unless poor families were sure of their monthly income, they would always be reluctant to send their children to schools once they were grown up enough to earn.